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THE LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAU. 



By ERNEST BRUNCKEN, 
of the California State Library, 



Reprinted from SVezis Xotes of California Libraries. Supplement to Vol. 2, No. 1, February, 1907. 



Practically every state in the Union 
has its state library, and all these insti- 
tutions were founded with the intention 
that they should be the working collec- 
tions of books for all the branches of 
the government. It turned out, how- 
ever, that in the majority of cases a 
single department, the law library, was 
for a long time the only one to receive 
fairly adequate support and become a 
useful instrument of gove nment. No 
doubt this happened largely because 
such a library is indispensable to the 
Supreme Court of each state ; which in- 
deed often superintends its management! 
and to members of the bar. But apart 
from the collection of law books, the 
majority of state libraries failed signally 
in performing their intended functions. 
With absurdly small pecuniary means, 
without expert management, often the 
plaything of the lowest sort of party j 
politics, many of them, until within a 
ew years, dragged on a miserable and 
useless existence. Some, it must be 
feared, have not risen above that level 
even yet. There were a few which from 
the beginning performed their duty at 
least to the extent of making a valuable 
collection of books. A little later, when 
the prevailing notions of library work | 
had become revolutionized, two or three 
of these institutions rose to the occasion 
and became the center of a great variety 
of activities. The State Library of New 
York is perhaps the most conspicuous 
case of this kind. But even then the . 
very object for which state libraries were 
originally established was pretty nearly 



forgotten. For the legislator and the 
administrative official, the state library 
was merely a mass of miscellaneous 
books, well or ill selected, poorly or 
properly arranged and cataloged, as the 
case might be, but of which he could 
make very little effective use. Of course, 
even the most old-fashioned librarian, in 
the days when he was hardly expected 
to be more than a custodian, if he was 
fairly competent to hold his office, would 
give to the bewildered inquirer some 
casual help to find a way through the 
maze of printed pages. But it is- only 
within less than a decade that the orig- 
inal purpose of state libraries has been 
seriously considered again, and that at- 
tempts have been made to accomplish it 
in a systematic and efficient manner. 
To this resurrection is due the under- 
taking of legislative reference work. 

It may be said that the first step in 
that direction was made when, in 1891, 
the State Library of New York, under 
the direction of Melvil Dewey, began 
the publication of its bulletins of state 
legislation. L'nder the successive edi- 
torship of W. B. Shaw, E. Dana Durand, 
and finally Dr. Robert H. Whitten, this 
series has become an indispensable tool 
and is well known to every librarian. In 
1892 the New York State Library notified 
members of the legislature that material 
relating to any special topic of legisla- 
tion in which they might be interested 
would be " collected promptly and made 
available to them with the least expendi- 
ture of their time." Ever since, that 
librarv has done excellent work in this 



direction, principally by the compila- 
tion of handy reading lists. The Library 
of Congress also has done much of the 
same sort. Many of the lists so com- J 
piled have been published and thus made^ 
useful to wider circles. 

The legislative reference bureau as 
we know it to-day did not come into 
being, however, until it happened that 
the library of the Wisconsin Historical 
Society at Madison moved from the cap- 
itol into its new building on the opposite 
side of the town. Then, it is said, it 
struck Mr F. A. Hutchins, who was at 
that time secretary of the State Library 
Commission, that the legislature should 
have at least a small reference collection 
close at hand, and that his commission 
ought to supply this want. It must be 
understood that what is known as the 
Wisconsin State Library is purely a col- 
lection of law books. At any rate, the 
Library Commission established the first 
legislative reference bureau and put at 
its head Charles McCarthy, Ph.D., who 
has made his office into something far 
greater than had originally been con- 
templated and become widely known as 
the chief exponent of a new policy, des- 
tined perhaps to play a part of increas- 
ing importance in the legislative and 
administrative life of this country. 

The Wisconsin bureau was established 
in 1901. At first its total expenditure 
was but $1500 a year. It was soon recog- 
nized officially by the legislature and 
its appropriation augmented to $45°°. 
while this year an appropriation of $10,- 
000 is contemplated. The head of this 
bureau has now, during the session of 
the legislature, a staff of about a dozen 
assistants of various grades. It is an 
established part of the governmental 
machinery of Wisconsin. Everybody 
there is wondering how they ever got 
along without it.. 

So far, no other state has by express 
legislation established a similar depart- 
ment, although efforts in that direction 
were made in Maryland, in Ohio, in 
Washington and elsewhere. But two 
years ago the State Library of California, 
without waiting for the legislature, be- 
gan to do such work. Within a year, 



the Stat rary of Indiana, with C. B. 

Lester, and the State Historical Society 
of Nebraska, with E. A. Sheldon in 
charge, have initiated the system. In 
Washington, ' Oregon, Idaho, North 
Dakota, Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, Illi- 
nois, in the city of Baltimore, and 
probably elsewhere, a movement in 
the same direction is on foot, and it 
looks as if within a few years every 
important state and many of the larger 
cities would have legislative reference 
bureaus. While these departments 
may take different forms, according 
to local circumstances, in most cases 
they will naturally grow out of the pres- 
ent activities of state or city libraries. 
The movement is beginning to attract 
considerable public attention, as is shown 
by the increasing number of articles 
about it in the papers and magazines 
and the frequent inquiries from various 
sources. The consensus of opinion 
seems to be that the legislative refer- 
ence bureau is one of the many agencies 
which for a number of years have made 
for a readjustment of our public life on 
a higher level. 

The remainder of this paper will be 
devoted to considering two questions : 
first, Why is there a special need of 
some such agency as legislative reference 
bureaus in the United States? and sec- 
ondly, What are the methods of opera- 
tion of such a bureau, particularly in our 
own State of California ? 

Probably there is no legislative body 
in any country in the world but has some 
sort of library for the use of its members 
in the discharge of their duties. A few 
parliamentary libraries are among the 
most valuable collections of books in the 
world, as notably the library of the Ger- 
man Reichstag, with its rare wealth in the 
field of comparative jurisprudence. But 
a legislative reference bureau aims to be 
something more than a library, more even 
than a library properly cataloged, amply 
indexed, and rendered easily accessible. 
If its functions are fully developed, it 
must be an indispensable part of the law- 
making and administrative machinery of 
the commonwealth. In order to show 
why there is a special and peculiar need 



(2) 





for this in the United States, a brief 
glance will be necessary at the manner 
in which laws are enacted in this country 
as compared with others. 

Until within little more than a gener- 
ation, the legislative and administrative 
problems presented to the governmental 
authorities of the United States were rel- 
atively simple. Social and economic con- 
ditions had little complexity. A simple 
framework of government, a few simple 
statutes sufficed, and could easily be ad- 
ministered by the common sense of the 
average citizen in the brief time he 
could spare from his private pursuits. 
The greatest task before the American 
people during the first century of its 
national existence, the wresting of a 
continent from the wilderness, was 
accomplished not by government, but by 
the individual citizens in their private 
capacities. Such difficult questions of a 
political nature as there were lay in the 
realm of constitutional law : The rescue 
of the federal constitution from the fet- 
ters of strict construction, the readjust- 
ment of the fundamental law after 
the tremendous shock of the civil war. 
For the solution of such problems we 
had an incomparable body of experts in 
the early American bar. Some of the 
greatest constructive statesmen of all 
times, with John Marshall at their head, 
have pleaded at the bar or sat on the 
bench of American courts of justice. 

But the conditions of to day are radi- 
cally different. Instead of the almost 
pastoral simplicity of the old public life 
has come a complexity rivaling that of 
the oldest states in Europe. Backwoods 
communities have grown into powerful 
commonwealths, often, like our own Cali- 
fornia, comprising districts in the most 
varied stages of development, from met- 
ropolitan over-civilization to the most 
primitive beginnings, and consequently 
with tremendous differences in interests, 
habits, views and inclinations. Over- 
grown fortunes are contrasted with depths 
of poverty never dreamt of in the olden 
days. Private interests, greedy, selfish 
and anti-social, are bidding insolent de- 
fiance to all efforts for the common wel- 
fare. Under these conditions, the simple 



r\ |0 

-"TV 

governmental methods that were once 
sufficient can not help but prove inade- 
quate. But they are still the only meth- 
>ds we can employ. The complexity of 
jur conditions cries for legislation by 
experts, and we still rely upon legislation 
by amateurs. 

It is the purpose of the legislative ref- 
erence bureau to help in remedying this 
evil, and to bring expert knowledge and 
skill within the reach of those charged 
with the business of legislation. 

In all other countries, provision is 
made for this purpose. In the states of 
this country alone we have acted on the 
theory that legislation is such a simple 
matter as to require no knowledge or 
skill which every full-grown, sane citi- 
zen does not possess. Leaving out of the 
reckoning the ancient civilizations, as 
far back as the early period of the 
Germanic peoples, when the affairs of 
the state were settled in public meeting 
of the freemen, the intervention of expert 
advice was required, though in a rudi- 
mentary form. At least, among the 
Friesians, where these primitive institu- 
tions survived longest, we have ' 'asegas, ' ' 
or "law-sayers," who not only knew the 
law as it stood, but also seem to have 
drawn up the new " keuren" or laws, 
which were assented to by the assembly. 
During the early mediaeval times, the 
clergy, many of them learned in the law, 
and familiar, through the work of the 
religious houses, with numerous branches 
of industry, furnished an admirable body 
of expert advisers to rulers of every ' 
degree. When the absolute monarchies 
arose on the ruins of feudalism, the law- 
making power almost everywhere in 
Europe fell into the hands of kings and 
similar potentates, but the decrees, 
edicts and orders in council that ap- 
peared over their signatures were in 
reality made by men specially trained 
for the business of legislation, as 
"jurists" and " cameralists." Then, if 
ever, there was legislation by experts, 
and it may be stated, in passing, that at 
its best the legislation so brought about 
was of a quality unrivaled. For ex- 
ample, it would be difficult to match such 
great laws as the Ordonnance de la 



(3) 



Marine under Louis XIV of France, which 
has become the foundation of modern 
international marine jurisprudence ; or 
the edicts by which Stein and his associ- 
ates regenerated the Prussian state after 
the catastrophe of Jena. For good and 
sufficient reasons, however, nobody re- 
grets the disappearance of the absolute 
monarchies. In practically all the rep- 
resentative governments that have taken 
their places, the theory has prevailed in 
imitation of their prototype, the parlia- 
ment of England, that every member of 
a legislative body has an equal right to 
propose legislation. But in practice it 
is only in the United States that the bulk 
of the business coming before the legis- 
lature actually consists of bills and reso- 
lutions first introduced by individual 
members. Everywhere else, the intro- 
duction, still more the adoption, of a 
bill coming from a private member is a 
rare exception. Thus, in Great Britain 
practically all bills, except those called 
technically "private" and relating to 
the affairs of individuals or particular 
localities, are introduced by the Cabinet, 
which is in effect a committee of the par- 
liamentary majority. Quite similar is 
the process of legislation in France. In 
Germany, parliament has even less to do 
with the initiation of proposed laws, for 
nearly all bills are proposed by the gov- 
ernment, which stands quite outside of 
and independent from parliament. The 
governments, however, which thus stand 
charged with the duty of preparing bills 
to be submitted to the legislative bodies, 
have of course at their disposal the 
whole corps of experts in their civil 
services, including a number of specially 
trained draughtsmen. Besides, they 
may call upon all the expert advice to 
be found outside of the government 
service. They can take all the time 
needed to thoroughly digest each matter. 
Consequently the bills introduced into 
Parliament, into the Chamber of Depu- 
ties or the Reichstag are almost always 
well thought out and very near to per- 
fection from the technical standpoint. 

How different in the United States ! 
Here every member does, not in theory 
only but in practice, propose new legis- 



lation. Every one usually feels it his 
duty not to lag behind his colleagues in 
the number of bills introduced. The 
personnel of American legislative bodies 
compares favorably, in character and 
intelligence, with that in any other 
country. But few of the members know 
very much of the matters with which 
they are called upon to deal. They are 
not a body of experts in anything, not 
even in political manipulation. They 
ought not to be a body of experts, for 
then they would cease to be representa- 
tive. The more varied the membership 
is with regard to occupation, training 
and intelligence, the more truly does it 
represent the people. If expertness 
were wanted in the legislative assembly 
itself, the Bar Association would probably 
serve the purpose, and we might save 
ourselves the expense and trouble of 
elections. 

The bills which are thus thrown into 
the legislative hopper are of every 
imaginable degree of fitness, from really 
well-conceived and skillfully executed 
pieces of legislative workmanship to the 
most absurd screeds, ridiculous as to 
subject-matter and ignorant as to form. 
The greater part is intelligent as far as 
the object in view is concerned, but often 
seriously deficient in form. Frequently 
such bills are quite needlessly obnox- 
ious to one or more constitutional pro- 
visions^ that an ingenious lawyer might 
drive not merely the proverbial coach and 
four through them, but a whole express 
train. Still more often they are drawn 
without regard to other existing laws, so 
that they create the utmost uncertainty 
and confusion. The statute law is like a 
delicate piece of machinery with all its 
parts closely interdependent. Change 
in one part usually requires correspond- 
ing changes in many other places, if the 
machinery is to run smoothly. A long 
chapter might be written on the faults of 
bills in this direction, and unfortunately 
not only the bills, but also of the finished 
acts which have passed through the whole 
process of committee reports, consecu- 
tive readings, and gubernatorial scrutiny, 
without elimination of their faults. This 
is no reflection on the intelligence or con- 



(4) 



scientiousness of members. These are 
difficulties which only a lawyer, and a 
lawyer specially trained in this field, can 
be relied on to detect. Clearly, expert 
draughtsmen are needed by American 
legislatures. 

So much as to matters of form. But 
quite as difficult is the task of the Amer- 
ican legislator in the matter of sub- 
stance. As everybody knows, the Amer- 
ican practice is to refer every bill to a 
committee. The legislature itself can 
not even vote on the passage of a meas- 
ure until the committee has reported on 
it. Each member is therefore called 
upon to form a judgment on all the bills 
coming before his committee. Rarely 
does he personally know very much 
regarding the matters with which these 
bills deal. He must rely upon some one 
to tell him about it, or he must study 
the subject up himself, presumably at the 
cost of much time and effort, at the 
moment when he is already a very busy 
man. Most frequently he takes the for- 
mer alternative, but not always is there 
somebody on hand to tell him all about 
it. Many a meritorious measure dies in 
committee, simply because it is nobody's 
business to give the necessary informa- 
tion. If the bill attracts a good deal of 
attention, there are usually a number of 
people anxious to argue for and against 
it. Then the tendency is for the com- 
mittee practically to abdicate its proper 
function and assume a quasi-judicial atti- 
tude. They listen to the argument and 
decide the fate of the bill, not according 
to its own merits, but like the jury in a 
law suit according as one side or the 
other has made the more plausible argu- 
ment. Here is where the opportunity 
comes for the special interests, which 
have favors to ask that may or may not 
be compatible with the public welfare. 
These interests send skillful attorneys 
and lobbyists to plead their case; no- 
body appears on the other side, and too 
often the better cause appears the worse 
for want of proper presentation . Of this 
kind of expert advice there is no lack in 
any American legislature. 

To trace in further detail the ways in 
% which our system makes intelligent and 



effective legislation difficult would spin 
this paper out to quite unreasonable 
length. On all sides the fact is admitted 
that the quality of American statute law, 
as it is ground out in ever-increasing 
quantity by nearly half a hundred leg- 
islative mills, is poor. The lack of 
participation by experts in the work, 
such as is provided in other countries, 
is not the only cause of the evil. But it 
is one very important cause, and to help 
in eliminating it is the function of a 
legislative reference bureau. 

Of course, the reference bureau, no 
matter how large, able and highly trained 
a staff it might possess, could not itself 
give the expert counsel needed, except 
perhaps in the matter of giving to bills 
their proper technical form. If any offi- 
cer of such a bureau were bumptious 
enough in his own person to pose as an 
expert on all the multifarious business 
coming before a legislature, he would 
deservedly be laughed at from California 
to Maine. It is not at all the function 
of the bureau to give advice. It merely 
proposes to enable each legislator who 
wishes to do so to obtain such expert 
advice as has been laid down in writing, 
and such information as may throw light 
on the subject, as thoroughly, quickly 
and conveniently as circumstances may 
permit. 

It would be strange if so patent a fact 
as the need of expert aid in legislation 
had not brought about efforts to supply 
what was lacking. Among the devices 
of this kind which are well-known and 
important factors in American public life 
is the legislative commission, charged 
with the investigation of important sub- 
jects and the formulating of legislation 
regarding them. Such commissions 
usually work during the legislative recess 
and are given the time and the means, 
pecuniary and legal, to obtain the neces- 
sary information and the expert points of 
view. At the coming session the reports 
of no less than four such commissions 
will be laid before the Legislature of Cal- 
ifornia. Another device for bringing 
together the legislator and the expert 
begins at the other end: Instead of a 
legislative committee sending for wit- 



(5 ) 



nesses and advisors, citizens join together 
in a civic association, have somebody 
whom they deem competent draw bills 
on such subjects as they are interested in, 
and submit these to the legislative body 
through some friendly member. Some- 
times the result of this method is most 
excellent. I may mention as an instance 
the work of the California Water and 
Forest Association. But we must remem- 
ber that the foolish as well as the wise 
may associate themselves and acquire 
the added power which springs there- 
from. It is unnecessary to go into details 
regarding so familiar a device of improv- 
ing the quality of legislation. Probably 
no one at all interested in public affairs 
but can boast of belonging to one or 
more such associations. 

Perhaps most well-drawn bills going 
before legislatures deal with subjects in 
which some body of men has an inter- 
est, may be an unselfish, more often a 
selfish one, an interest great enough to 
make them go to the expense of retain- 
ing experts and lawyers properly to 
formulate their wishes. 

With such and all similar methods the 
legislative reference bureau does not 
enter into rivalry. On the contrary, it 
desires to aid and supplement them. It 
wishes to help legislation in all its 
stages to be better instructed, more fully 
versed in everything connected with its 
subject matter. Under the democratic 
forms of our public life, the preparing 
of a bill is far from being the initial step 
in legislation. At least, in all matters 
of great importance, a previous stage of 
suggestion, discussion, often of popular 
agitation has first been passed through. 
At all events, every legislative proposal 
must first have originated in the mind of 
an individual, whether a member of the 
legislature or an outsider. To all con- 
cerned in the process the legislative 
reference bureau offers its services. 

Before entering upon a discussion of 
the methods by which this purpose may 
be accomplished, it may be wise to stop 
a moment and answer the possible ob- 
jection : Admitting that more systematic 
utilization of expert knowledge is needed 
in American legislation, why invent a 



new plan for getting it? Why not adopt 
the means proven successful elsewhere, 
and restrict the actual initiation of legis- 
lation to a chosen few of experience and 
knowledge, instead of allowing each in- 
dividual member to carry grist to the 
lawmaking mill? A sufficient answer 
would probably be that a change to the 
English plan is far too radical a step to 
find the approval of the American peo- 
ple, most conservative of nations as it is 
in its political habits. But furthermore: 
the English plan has its own draw- 
backs. Long and loud are the com- 
plaints heard in Great Britain about the 
impossibility of getting laws passed, no 
matter how badly needed, in which the 
government of the day cannot see a 
partisan advantage. Conversely, every 
bill introduced by the government be- 
comes at once the target of partisan 
assaults by the opposition. The merits 
are lost sight of, and the measure be- 
comes merely a pawn in the parlia- 
mentary game of chess. In France, the 
same thing is seen in an exaggerated 
form. In Germany and the German 
states, the promptness and quality of 
legislation are probably better than in 
any other large country. But it is kept 
from the faults of Great Britain and 
France only by the fact that the strongs- 
monarchical constitutions of Germany 
do not make governments dependent on 
the shifting majorities of parliament. 
The monarchical feature, of course, we 
neither would nor could imitate in Amer- 
ica. However, if there is a point of ex- 
cellence in our legislative methods, it is 
that the passage or rejection of bills is 
rarely affected by partisan politics. Only 
in a few cases where a measure has been 
an issue in the preceding campaign, or 
where some partisan scheme is in ques- 
tion, is it likely that partisan lines are 
drawn regarding it. Even in Congress, 
where this is done much oftener than in 
state legislatures, the ordinary legisla- 
tion (which is apt to be of much greater 
importance than the political measures) 
is hardly ever passed by a party vote. 

It is clear, then, that we cannot look 
abroad for the solution of our problem 
of bringing expert knowledge within the 



( 6 



grasp of the legislator. In this as in 
other things, America must work out 
her own salvation, observing and learn- 
ing from the experience of all others, 
slavishly imitating none. 

Assuming now, that the need of such 
an institution as the legislative refer- 
ence bureau has been amply proven, the 
task remains of showing the methods by 
which it may attempt to do its work, and 
especially those which have been adopted 
by the institution in California. 

Argument is hardly necessary to justify 
the organic connection of the legislative 
reference bureau with the state library, 
an institution originally designed, as al- 
ready stated above, to do the very work 
to which it has now returned. A library, 
a large library, is manifestly a funda- 
mental necessity for the bureau's work. 
This library must be made quickly and 
accurately available. Thus the work of 
the California bureau, which constitutes 
an integral part of the Sociological De- 
partment of the State Library, naturally 
falls into two branches : building up the 
collections of the parent institution in 
the branches relating to public affairs, 
and opening them up by indexing and 
the personal activity of the reference 
librarians. In both branches of the work, 
regard must be had to the various classes 
of people concerned in the long and 
intricate process of crystallizing a polit- 
ical idea into an actual statute. Bach 
class has its peculiar needs, but each 
must be served with equal faithfulness if 
the state library is to live up to its 
ideals. 

At the beginning comes the thinker, 
the scientific investigator, who collects 
and arranges social facts, formulates 
political theories. His library needs are 
the greatest of all ; he requires books 
new and old, covering a vast range of 
learning, far wider than what the classi- 
fier puts under the head of "sociology." 
But he knows his books, knows the bib- 
liography of his special field, presumably 
far better than any librarian could. Here 
all the state library has to do is to 
furnish the books. I should say, then : 
If this state, through the State Library, 
% desires legislative reference work done as 



it should be done, it must first build up 
a great collection of books relating to 
public affairs in the widest sense. This 
duty is particularly great in California, 
because here we are remote from large 
libraries. An investigator in New York, 
if he does not find what he wants at 
home, is within a few hours' travel from 
the library treasures of Boston, of Phil- 
adelphia, Baltimore and Washington. 
The Californian has no resources outside 
of the few libraries of his own common- 
wealth, and no matter how patriotic a 
son of his state he may be, no scholar 
can fail to be painfully conscious how 
slender the means of serious study still 
are on the Pacific Coast. In conjunction 
and intelligent co-operation with our 
two universities, the State Library should 
gradually remove this reproach, and can 
do so if the Legislature can be brought 
to realize the need and give the neces- 
sary financial support. 

After the theoretical student come the 
many sorts of people who are interested 
in public affairs, and in one way or 
another help in making that public 
opinion which finally causes the drawing 
up of a bill: newspapermen, members 
of civic associations and intelligent 
people generally, who wish to inform 
themselves on such subjects. These are 
not served by at least a portion of the 
literature that is indispensable to the 
scholar, while a considerable body of 
popular writing is precisely what they 
require. This class has greater need 
of the reference librarian than the first 
named, to guide them to the things they 
are looking for. They are as much en- 
titled to the services of the state library 
as any other class, and their indirect in- 
fluence on legislation is a factor in the 
process that may not always be on the 
surface, but cannot possibly be over- 
estimated. 

Finally, however, comes that class 
who are directly engaged in the ultimate 
phases of the legislative work, and 
whose special need has called forth the 
legislative reference bureau, as distin- 
guished from general reference work in 
a library : members of the legislature, 
and those who appear before legislative 



(7) 



committees to argue for or against pro- 
posed measures. 

The need which this class has for 
books and other printed matter is of an 
entirely different sort from that of either 
the special student or the general reader. 
With them there can be no question of 
leisurely study, no reading of good 
books from cover to cover, nor patient 
search for original authorities. They 
are working under high pressure, and 
that library is the best for them which 
enables them to find in the quickest and 
surest manner any given fact, any re- 
quired authority, wherewith to answer 
questions as they turn up in argument 
or debate, from minute to minute. The 
more concise the argument, the simpler 
the form in which the facts are stated, 
the better the material for this class 
of readers. Moreover, the information 
wanted is the very latest : last week's 
statistics are better than those of last 
year, and yesterday's information is 
"better still. 

To meet these special needs is the busi- 
ness of the legislative reference bureau. 
Therefore it will gather, in addition to 
the books of the main library, which 
form the solid background of its work, 
all the pamphlets, broadsides, fly-sheets 
and scraps of paper relating to public 
affairs, which it can buy, beg, coax, 
wheedle, and, I had almost said, steal; 
it will make copious newspaper clip- 
pings; it will tear up old magazines, if 
it can get hold of them, for the few val- 
uable articles or scraps of information 
they may contain; it will even commit 
the unpardonable sin, in the eyes of the 
bibliophile, and cut pages out of a book 
(provided it is a duplicate). About all 
the spoil so gathered it will make an 
elaborate set of index cards. But let not 
the veteran cataloger look into the draw- 
ers containing these, lest her soul be 
grieved. For she will find all her scien- 
tific rules of classification, all her artis- 
tic styles of entry disregarded. Any- 
thing is permissible in the index that 
will in the quickest way hunt down the 
given fact, answer a given question. 
The quickest way being evidently to have 
the answer right there on the card, this 



plan is adopted wherever feasible. Thus 
the index becomes really much more 
than an index. It might more properly 
be called a set of notes, such as a stu- 
dent would prepare for his own use. 
Only it aims to cover the whole vast field 
of contemporaneous public life. Be- 
tween the same guide cards may jostle 
each other a card referring to the book 
where the subject is most fully treated; 
others referring to two or three maga- 
zine articles; another, containing a short 
newspaper clipping, and another with 
some such note as: "Laws on subject — 
see Ohio, Mass., N. J., Wis., Kansas"; 
still another with a quotation from a 
speech of some noted man, or possibly 
the address of some person supposed to 
know more about the subject than any- 
body else, put in because of a hope that 
at the proper time an artful letter may 
coax a valuable disquisition from him. 
All these notes have, of course, been ac- 
cumulated before the legislative session 
begins, when they are to be brought into 
play. It is evident that there is no limit 
to the extent of this work. It is merely 
a question of the size of the staff em- 
ployed in preparing the notes. The 
more voluminous these are, the quicker 
and more effective will be the service 
rendered by the bureau. 

One feature of particular importance 
in the work is to obtain from other states 
bills pending there while the same sub- 
ject is under discussion at home, and to 
obtain quick information regarding ac- 
tion taken in any of the forty or more 
legislative bodies usually sitting simul- 
taneously in the different states. This 
has heretofore been particularly difficult, 
but when most states shall have legisla- 
tive reference bureaus in working order, 
it will be easy. 

The drawing of bills by the legislative 
reference librarian is not necessarily 
an integral part of his duty, but wherever 
the system has been introduced, so far, 
members have come to him with the re- 
quest that he do so. This has been the 
experience in California. It is to be 
hoped that in the future each state may 
employ an official draughtsman, such as 
is employed in Great Britain to draw 



(8) 



government bills. But until then, this 
work seems to fall naturally to the legis- 
lative reference librarian. 

This somewhat fragmentary outline of 
the functions of a legislative reference 
bureau would be incomplete without lay- 
ing stress on the evident necessity that 
the work must be absolutely impartial. 
The friends and opponents of each pend- 
ing measure must be able to obtain infor- 
mation with equal facility and accuracy, 
and moreover, they must feel that they 
can do so. Between the librarian and 
those who avail themselves of his serv- 
ices there will naturally exist a relation 
of confidence akin to that of attorney 
and client. The librarian will undoubt- 
edly have opinions, and possibly strong 
opinions, on many pending measures. 
But he must never obtrude them, and 
above all he must avoid like a pestilence 
the bare appearance of lobbying for or 
against any bill. It is unfortunate that 
a widely read weekly paper, in a recent 
article on the most distinguished of pres- 
ent legislative reference librarians, had 
the bad taste to dub him a " lobbyist for 
the people." It puts an altogether erro- 
neous aspect on the work. 

The name commonly given to this new 
institution implies that its functions are 
peculiarly connected with the legislature 
of the state, and there, no doubt, is its 
first and foremost field of usefulness. 
But it is a mistake to think that its work 
must stop there. The various local leg- 
islative bodies, boards of trustees, town 
and city councils, county supervisors, 
are as much in need of whatsoever assist- 



ance the legislative reference bureau 
may be able to render as the legislature, 
if not sometimes a little more so. The 
State Library has a very simple ma- 
chinery for extending its Legislative 
Bureau as well as all other branches of 
its service to every part of the state, no 
matter how remote. A letter of inquiry 
regarding matters of local administra- 
tion, ordinances and the like, will bring 
prompt response. If required, books 
and pamphlets containing information 
on the subject of the inquiry will be sent 
to the local library for the use of the in- 
quirer; or the inquiry may be made to 
the local librarian, who will forward it to 
the State Library. The latter has already 
a fair collection of city ordinances, char- 
ters, and books relating to municipal 
government, and will increase and round 
out its collection as rapidly as circum- 
stances will permit. In time, the larger 
cities will probably have legislative 
reference bureaus of their own, such as 
Baltimore has just instituted. But to 
the ordinary municipality the state li- 
brary will render even more efficient 
service in the future than now. 

It is time to bring this paper to a close. 
If the purpose of outlining the necessity 
for a legislative reference bureau, and 
the methods of its procedure has been 
accomplished to a reasonable degree, 
there remains only the hope that those for 
whom the bureau seeks to labor, whether 
at the state capital or scattered through 
the various municipalities of the com- 
monwealth, may avail themselves of its 
services to its fullest capacity. 



(9) 



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